Applicant/Inventor was a designer for twenty-two years and Value Engineering Officer (hereinafter VEO) for nine years with the Walla Walla District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In that period eight new hydroelectric dams were built on the Columbia, Snake, Boise and Clearwater rivers. Applicant/Inventor was involved with several of them and as VEO, he led studies on many until retiring in 1982 to continue his career in Value Engineering (hereinafter VE) as an international consultant. That included occasional VE studies on dams, such as five potential projects in Nepal and several more in the United States.
McNary Dam on the Columbia River is first Applicant/Inventor encountered with the Corps. The 1340 foot long powerhouse has fourteen generators. The total rated capacity of the powerhouse is 1,120,000 kilowatts. One hydropower turbine at McNary Dam produces as much electricity as two hundred and eleven 660 KW wind turbines. In addition, McNary's hydroelectricity is dependable, unaffected by wind, daylight or oceanic conditions.
Applicant/Inventor led a VE study on a planned second power-house for the McNary Dam. It would have duplicated the existing powerhouse by abutting and extending it on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. Complications mired the effort; it was never built and finally de-authorized. Leading the latter study embedded in Applicant/Inventor an interest to creatively increase hydroelectric dam's generation of electricity.